The United States Drought Monitor is a hand drawn analysis of weekly drought condition in the country based on quantitative and qualitative measures of drought. The featured map shows the most recent analysis valid on the 10th. The entire state except about two counties is shown in some level of drought condition. The plotted numbers are IEM computed counts of the number of recent periods having a precipitation departure of at least negative 1.2 standard deviations from average. Four periods are shown covering the recent 30, 60, 90, and 120 days. So if a location has a four plotted, each of those periods has a precipitation departure worse than negative 1.2 sigma. The negative 1.2 level is about when "D2" drought is to be analyzed. The numbers show the most consistently dry areas of the state are from central to southeastern Iowa. Northeastern and extreme western Iowa have not been as dry.

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Tags:   2013   drought